The Sports Car Club of America ( SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting Autocross, Rallycross, HPDE, Time trial, Road racing, Regularity rally, and Hillclimbing in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional racers.
History
In 1951, the SCCA National Sports Car Championship was formed from existing marquee events around the nation, including Watkins Glen, Pebble Beach, and Elkhart Lake. Many early SCCA events were held on disused air force bases, organized with the help of Air Force General Curtis LeMay, a renowned enthusiast of sports car racing. LeMay loaned out facilities of Strategic Air Command bases for the SCCA's use; the SCCA relied heavily on these venues during the early and mid-1950s during the transition from street racing to permanent circuits.
By 1962, the SCCA was tasked with managing the U.S. World Sportscar Championship rounds at Daytona, Sebring, Bridgehampton and Watkins Glen. The club was also involved in the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix. SCCA Executive Director John Bishop helped to create the United States Road Racing Championship series for Group 7 sports cars to recover races that had been taken by rival USAC Road Racing Championship. Bishop was also instrumental in founding the SCCA Trans-Am Series and the SCCA/CASC Can-Am series. In 1969, tension and infighting over Pro Racing's autonomy caused Bishop to resign and help form the International Motor Sports Association.
Sanctioned Events
Autocross (Solo)
Competitions are held at the regional, divisional, and national levels. A national champion in each class is determined at the national championship (usually referred to as "Nationals") held in September. In 2009, Solo Nationals moved to the Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Nebraska. Individual national-level events called "Championship Tours" and "Match Tours" are held throughout the racing season. The SCCA also holds national-level events in an alternate format called "ProSolo". In ProSolo, two cars compete at the same time on mirror-image courses with drag racing-style starts, complete with reaction and 60-foot times. Class winners and other qualifiers (based on time differential against the class winner) then compete in a handicapped elimination round called the "Challenge". Points are awarded in both class and Challenge competition, and an annual champion is crowned each September at the ProSolo Finale event in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Rallycross
Rallying are run on open, public roads. These are not races in the sense of speed, but of precision and navigation. The object is to drive on time, arriving at checkpoints with the proper amount of elapsed time from the previous checkpoint. Competitors do not know where the checkpoints are.
Track Night in America
TNiA goes to well known tracks like Road America, VIR, even Sebring and Lime Rock. There are also smaller club tracks like CMP, AMP and Pitt Race. TNiA puts on about 150 events a year, totaling nearly 10,000 entrants each year, and as of 2024 has been running for 10 years.
Time Trials
Club Racing
The annual national championship for Club Racing is called the SCCA National Championship Runoffs and has been held at Riverside International Raceway (1964, 1966, 1968), Daytona International Speedway (1965, 1967, 1969, 2015), Road Atlanta (1970–1993), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (1994–2005, 2016), Heartland Park Topeka (2006–2008), Road America (2009-2013, 2020), Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (2014), and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2017). In 2018, the Runoffs will go back west to Sonoma Raceway. In 2019, the race will be held at Virginia International Raceway a track where the race has never been held. It was announced on 15 June 2018 that the Runoffs would go back to Road America in the year 2020. On 25 May 2019, the weekend of the 2019 Indianapolis 500, SCCA announced they will be returning to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021. The current SCCA record holder is Jerry Hansen, (former owner of Brainerd International Raceway), with twenty-seven national championships.
SCCA Majors formula group classes
Professional racing
Current SCCA-sanctioned series include Trans-Am Series, the GT World Challenge America for grand tourer and touring cars, the Global MX-5 Cup, and the F1600 Championship Series, F2000 Championship Series, and Atlantic Championship Series for open-wheel racing. SCCA Pro Racing has also sanctioned professional series for some amateur classes such as Spec Racer Ford Pro and Formula Enterprises Pro. SCCA Pro Racing also sanctioned the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup during its time.
Conferences, divisions and regions
| Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Northern Virginia | ||
| Southeast | Southeast | Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, Puerto Rico and Southern Virginia |
| Northern | Central | Northern Illinois, Minnesota, Eastern Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin |
| Great Lakes | Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and Southern West Virginia | |
| Mid-States | Midwest Division | Arkansas, Southern Illinois, Western Iowa, Kansas, Northern Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Western Tennessee |
| Rocky Mountain | Colorado, Eastern Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming | |
| Southern | Southwest | Louisiana, Texas, and coastal Mississippi |
| West | Northern Pacific | Alaska, Northern California, Idaho, Western Montana, Northern Nevada, Oregon, and Washington |
| Southern Pacific | Arizona, Southern California, Hawaii, and Nevada |
Awards
Hall of fame
See also
- Hillclimbing in the United States
- United States Auto Club
- Automobile Racing Club of America
- Automobile Association of America
- Automobile Club of America
External links
- SCCA TNiA
- SCCA official website
- SCCA Time Trials
- SCCA Pro Racing official website
- SCCA Awards
- 1950s SCCA Race Results
- How professional racing changed the SCCA – and the world - Jeff Zurschmeide, Racer Magazine, 10 February 2014
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